


Youth

by Blaiddsumu



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen, Journal 3 spoilers, Kinda, Sonployee, Stan and Soos bonding moments, Stan's son that isn't technically or legally his son but everyone can tell, Stanuary 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-01-17
Packaged: 2019-03-06 02:38:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13401672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blaiddsumu/pseuds/Blaiddsumu
Summary: For Stanuary week three: Youth.Stan sees Soos pretty down in the dumps, so he tries to cheer the kid up.





	Youth

**Author's Note:**

> This is based off a little thing in Journal 3,,, I wonder how many other people have done this haha. (i don't blame ya, it's heckin adorable)
> 
> this one's a lot shorter than my other stanuary fic haham,, , j fladfglkdfg i could probably make it better tbh

Stan watched his young employee work on fixing yet another broken thing in the Shack as he closed up for the day. The boy had been looking particularly down in the dumps that day, and if Stan was correct it was the same day the year before Soos was this way as well. It also happened to be the kid’s birthday -- which he knew because he actually hired the kid legally for once, and to do so he had to know his birthday. Apparently. There was a surprisingly large amount of paperwork when it came to hiring people which he wouldn’t normally do, but this kid was entirely too innocent and young for Stan to have the heart to  _ not _ hire him legally (eventually). It would look good on the kid’s resume, or somethin’.

He didn’t blame the kid for not liking birthdays; goodness knows he would rather spend his own with his other half than on his own as he was now. But whenever Stan tried to bring up why Soos didn’t like his birthday, the boy only got  _ more _ gloomy and quiet, and whenever Stan tried to celebrate the birthday in an attempt to lighten the mood, Soos practically outright avoided him. Stan would never admit it, but that hurt, and he wanted more than anything (well, almost anything) to be able to cheer the kid up at least a  _ little _ bit. 

His mind wandered to a few days ago, when Soos had come into work looking like he had gotten into a fistfight with a bunch of gnomes. Which he did, apparently. Stan insisted Soos tell him what had happened, and after an initial conversation of “I don’t know if you’ll believe me” and “Trust me kid, I’ve seen some weird stuff”, the boy finally admitted he had been ganged up on by a bunch of tiny men who had proceeded to steal his peanut butter and jelly sandwich he had intended to eat for lunch that day.

By the looks of it, Stan figured the boy didn’t, or wasn’t able to, fight back. He cleaned Soos up and told him to get something out of the fridge in the kitchen, then had a serious talk with the gnomes that lived in the woods. After that, Stan hoped there would be no more occurence with gnomes and Soos, but that didn’t change the fact that Soos didn’t know how to defend himself. 

If he had anything to do with it, that my just change here soon.  _ Wait, what? _ Apparently he was gonna teach the kid to fight, now. That wouldn’t look good on his reputation as the uncaring and money-loving boss, but he couldn’t just… let the kid get beat up because he couldn’t defend himself.

“Hey, Soos,” The words were out of Stan’s mouth before he realized what he was saying. 

Soos looked up, surprised. He gently set down the tools he had been using, then turned to face Stan.

“Yes, Mr. Pines?” he asked. His voice didn’t give away any emotion, which was very odd for the kid. Stan drummed his fingers on the counter next to him in a quick rhythm.

“I, uh… Kid, stop workin’ on that thing, I gotta talk to ya about somethin’.” Wow, that was vague. Stan mentally kicked himself; he probably just confused the kid instead of… well, whatever he had intended to convey when he started talking. 

Fortunately, the kid just gave him a curious glance before cleaning up his tools. Stan smiled the tiniest bit as he thought about how much the kid has taught himself. When Stan first hired him, it had been on a whim and only because the kid was holding a screwdriver. Turned out, Soos didn’t know know anything about being a handyman but he picked up on things incredibly quick. Stan thought briefly about firing him the first few days, but that idea had been thrown out the window once he realized how smart the kid was. 

Soos finished cleaning up and walked up to Stan, pulling the old man out of his reminiscing. He looked up at Stan with an unreadable expression on his face. Stan realized how bad his statement could have been taken.

“Kid, it ain’t anythin’ bad.” 

Soos relaxed, shoulders dropping as he released tension Stan didn’t notice the kid even had. He really needed to get better at reading body language, at least body language that wasn’t aggressive. Stan reached up and scratched the back of his head, pondering how to say what he had in mind next.

“So, Kid. Ya know how to fight?” He finally settled on saying. Which apparently wasn’t the best thing to say, as Soos’s mood seemed to worsen.

“No, Mr. Pines. I don’t want to hurt other people, you know, dude?” The boy said quietly, not looking at Stan’s face directly. Stan grimaced at his own choice of words.

“Nah, Kid, I didn’t mean it like that. Ya never know when you’ll need to defend yourself, like with the gnomes. Knowing a little bit of the basics of fighting isn’t a bad thing, as long as ya don’t go pickin’ fights.” Not that Stan was the best person to be telling the kid this, since he got in his own fair share of fights that could have definitely been avoided when he was younger. But knowing how to fight was useful, especially when, say, you were being cornered by people who really didn’t like you because you may or may not have conned them real good.

“Oh. That makes sense, I guess.” Soos said. He still sounded entirely too mopey.

“Hey, what’s with the long face, Kid? Where’s your usual happy schtick?” Stan asked as he leaned down to look the kid in the eyes. That was gonna ache on his back later, he could tell, but right now it didn’t matter.

“It’s nothing… Sorry, dude.” He said after a moment. He looked away from Stan again, to a different part of the room.

Stan frowned. Normally, kids weren’t this mopey on birthdays. Stan had his own reasons for maybe not liking his birthday, but this was something different entirely. 

“Alright kid, spill. What’s got ya down so much?” Stan said, before he quickly realized that made it sound like he, of all things,  _ cared _ about the kid, “I, uh, can’t have ya moping around the shack like that, customers like happy faces.” There, better.

Soos gave him a thin smile, easily seeing through Stan’s weak attempt at hiding the fact that he cared about Soos. His smile dropped just as quick as it came as the kid thought over what Stan had asked of him.

“It’s nothing, dawg. Just…” He trailed off, usure what to say next.

“C’mon kid, nobody’s this sad on their birthday for no reason.”

At the mention of his birthday, Soos’s expression crumbled and he went silent. Stan rubbed his chin, processing the kid’s reaction and trying to puzzle out what he could do to cheer him up.

“Okay, so you don’t want to talk about it. I get it. Howabout I teach ya how to defend yourself, like we were talkin’ just a second ago, eh?” Stan offered. Soos looked back up at him.

“Really?” he asked, a hint of surprise in his voice. Stan couldn’t tell if he was asking about when Stan accepted the fact the kid didn’t want to talk about his birthday or the fact that Stan was offering to teach him how to fight.

“Really. Now, lemme see ya make a fist.” 

“R-right now? It’s still during work, dawg!” Soos said. His voice was much more animated now. Stan smiled to himself.

“Yeah, right now. It may be during work hours but I’m your boss, remember?” Stan teased, tousling the kid’s hair almost subconsciously as he talked. Soos smiled, laughed even, at Stan’s words (or the hair thing).

“That’s true.” 

Stan frowned seriously. “Now, kid, lemme see that fist.” 

Soos complied to his request, making a fist with his right hand. 

“Now, here we go kid. First thing ya need to know is that ya don’t put your thumb on the inside of your fist, ya put it on the outside, like this,” Stan made a fist with his own hand, showing Soos, “If ya don’t do that, It’ll hurt like h-heck when ya punch somethin’.”

Soos adjusted his thumb and smiled as Stan gave an approving nod.

“Now, let’s work on your stance. Ya want a good stance when ya punch, to get as much power as possible,” Stan continued. 

The two spent the rest of the afternoon like this, until it was time for Soos to go home. The kid looked much happier as he left, and Stan smiled. He was glad he was able to cheer him up, even if he still didn’t know what made him so down in the first place. Maybe next time he could do something about the whole birthday thing. Heck, he might just petition the government to get rid of the day entirely. 

 


End file.
